Otter Tail Co. (NASDAQ:OTTR) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Otter Tail Co. (NASDAQ:OTTR) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,670,000 shares, a drop of 18.6% from the March 31st total of 3,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 269,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.9 days. Approximately 6.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Otter Tail

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wesbanco Bank Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Otter Tail during the first quarter worth $801,000. AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new position in Otter Tail in the first quarter valued at $310,000. Wealth Forward LLC bought a new position in Otter Tail in the fourth quarter valued at $360,000. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in Otter Tail in the fourth quarter valued at $1,634,000. Finally, Davis R M Inc. bought a new position in Otter Tail in the fourth quarter valued at $236,000. Institutional investors own 61.32% of the company’s stock.

Otter Tail Trading Down 1.2 %

OTTR traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $84.58. The stock had a trading volume of 124,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 161,352. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $82.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.08 and a beta of 0.56. Otter Tail has a 1-year low of $68.96 and a 1-year high of $99.49.

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.03. Otter Tail had a net margin of 21.81% and a return on equity of 21.64%. The company had revenue of $314.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $300.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Otter Tail will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Otter Tail Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 15th were given a dividend of $0.468 per share. This is an increase from Otter Tail’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 14th. This represents a $1.87 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Otter Tail’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.71%.

Otter Tail Company Profile

Otter Tail Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in electric utility, manufacturing, and plastic pipe businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric, Manufacturing, and Plastics. The Electric segment produces, transmits, distributes, and sells electric energy in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota; and operates as a participant in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets.